The Golden Rulebook of Dating an Entrepreneur (The 10 Commandments to Glory)

"Roberto, you've phased out again. Did you hear what I asked?" She said.

"What is it, babe? What did you say?" I said.

"Oh my God, I just asked you a question. Where's your mind this time?" She complained.

"Calm down babe; I was thinking about this product launch I have in a few days. I think if I could just pull one more trick, this might increase the sales a few more thousa...

And before I could even finish my thought, I heard the door slam.

Well, what can you do? I can't even stand myself sometimes. So much about this poor girl that her mindset doesn't even come close to mine.

Dating an entrepreneur is like a roller-coaster. It has the lows, it has the highs, it has the drama, it can have some excruciatingly hard times, but it can also have greatness.

It all depends on how you want to look at it.

I primarily address today's article to all these people (men or women) who want to date an entrepreneur. If you have accustomed yourselves to people of the traditional 9 to 5 lazy jobs, then the transition could be tricky.

Luckily, you got me to make your life a lot easier. All you have to do is follow these ten *simple* commandments, and I promise you a relationship full of adventure, mystery, and glory!

So without further ado, here they are.

The 10 commandments of dating an entrepreneur.

Commandment #1: An entrepreneur may be temporarily broke

First and foremost. On average all (serious) entrepreneurs will need a period of 3 to 5 years before any real financial results start to show.

Like I said, if you're accustomed to a 9 to 5er with a steady paycheck month after month, you may be disappointed to know that there's no *guaranteed paycheck* in the life of an entrepreneur.

In one month he might make $10k and on the other $5k or lower, and then again the next $15k or whatever.

Forget about stability and ease of mind. These are forbidden words in every entrepreneur's vocabulary, for at least a few years after they start.

I can remember countless nights, where I had to stay inside and cook something simple (and cheap) because I didn't want to spend money on going out or order something expensive to eat.

Although it might sound a bit dramatic, most entrepreneurs will face some similar face sooner or later. During the first break-in period, you'll need to make a lot of sacrifices.

And although the entrepreneur will be ready for a "hard winter", you might not be. Think twice whether you can stand this pain period before you start dating an ambitious guy who's just starting his business journey.

Commandment #2: Entrepreneurs are wise spenders

Moreover, even if an entrepreneur starts to make some serious money, they won't want to spend it on superficial things. In other words, a real entrepreneur knows that he has to put his money work for him. He needs to create stuff, not to consume them.

So even if he's not broke, there are high chances that he'll want to re-invest most of the money he earns back to his businesses or investments.

So don't expect him to go crazy with those lobsters in your dinner out unless the price is immaterial to him.

Actually what I describe is very close to my reality as well. A few months ago, I was only making a couple of dollars per month, and I was spending even fewer.

Now although I make more than $5k per month, I still spend a relatively small percentage of it (less than 10%) for lifestyle. The majority of it (about 70 to 80%) is re-invested in my primary business, and the rest goes to my savings account.

Any ambitious entrepreneur will like you if you have a similar mindset.

Commandment #3: They need time on their own

Due to the frantic rhythm of their businesses, most entrepreneurs need a fair bit of time to cool off. Because they invest most of their time to grow their business/net worth, they really need some time of solitude and relaxation.

That's not to mean that you are bothering them with your presence. It's just that entrepreneurs need to empty their head from their heavy schedule completely.

All relationships have a bit of drama from time to time. Even mine - although I consider myself to be a rational male - has some melodramatic moments. I'm not entirely against it, but most of the times what I need after a tough day is just to relax with a movie or a documentary (about the sex life of penguins).

Chatting, going out for a dinner or having sex 🙂 are all very nice. But solitude time is crucial to an entrepreneur.

It's very often their "grow mode" time. When they think about new, brilliant ideas to boost their business or new more efficient ways to improve their productivity.

Respect that solitude time please. If an entrepreneur wants to be with you, he'll be with you. Pushing him to dedicate more time to you, usually, won't make things better. Just let him take his time off and when the times allows it, you'll be together like two pink lovebirds.

Commandment #4: Forget about the 9 to 5 schedule

Well, no babe, I'm sorry. I'm not done yet. I don't work in somebody else's office you know?

I'm done when I can't go anymore. Money doesn't take a rest, so I don't either.

To a regular person, this may sound a bit weird. To an entrepreneur, though, working in irregular hours is a norm.

Within the week, most of me evenings are booked for online calls with business partners. And because some of them are in different time zones (usually in the US) most of my calls are scheduled after 9 PM in my local time.

But I can't help it; that's the rules of engagement. I love seeing my business grow, and I don't mind if I have to work in the morning, in the evening or even in the night.

All I care about is how am I going to produce more, sell more and earn more. Everything else belongs to my list of "good to have things."

Commandment #5: Entrepreneurs don't go out a lot

And I mean it. Any serious entrepreneur will prefer to spend most of his time on growing his business, expanding himself, or relax. Going out to clubs, bars, scuba diving, etc. is most of the times a painful distraction.

Take a visit to a club near you, I bet 90% of the people who are in there, are either poorly paid rats or zero income losers.

They work their asses off for the whole week just to buy a bottle of vodka at a club on Saturday night.

Going out and staying out late is not only a time waster but also a health and focus demolisher. You not only waste 5 or 6 hours going out, drinking and chasing low-level chicks, you also spend as many hours to recover the next day.

In general, successful entrepreneurs, are very health conscious, so they don't like to indulge in health diminishing or focus distracting hobbies.

If you're like a typical girl who likes to go out a lot, then an entrepreneur might not be a good match for you. You'll have to respect the fact that most of the times you'll have to stay at home with him (and his cat), chatting, watching a movie or a documentary, or preparing a delicious and healthy dinner to enjoy.

Commandment #6: They are obsessed with their job

Seriously. This is no joke guys. Especially for young entrepreneurs who don't have a family, the equation goes like this:

Business > Everything else

There are no discounts here. Being serious about making big money ain't a game. It needs tremendous amounts of energy, focus, willpower and time. All this needs to come at the expense of some other pillar of life.

From my personal (limited) experience, I have seen that unless you're [ninja-popup id=2498]100% committed and focused on your business[/ninja-popup], you won't go very far.

Remember the girl that slammed that door in my face? She had every reason to do this because while she was talking to me, my mind was traveling away. I was absorbed with an idea of how to grow my business.

For better or worse, no business can become a million dollar business unless the entrepreneur is 100% focused into that. Their business will need to be their single focus for a really long time - and it will be.

To an entrepreneur, no idea or achievement is crazy enough. We know that we can achieve almost anything and we'll try to pursue that. Don't get surprised if you listen to an entrepreneur that he wants to build a business and wealth empire. If he's serious about it, he'll do it.

So there's not much you can do to avoid that. Just try to be patient and understanding. You might even be smart enough to help him or her with their business idea. That will earn you some nice relationship points as well.

Commandment #7: They have solid opinions

At least, that's what I think about myself.

Most entrepreneurs are people that study, read, and learn a lot. So it only makes sense to forge strong realities and opinions about things. Most of the times, entrepreneur's views will be data and fact driven. This is the best kind of opinion you can get.

Average people like to state their point of view and insist on it. But very often these opinions is heavily skewed due to social programming. They almost never do their due diligence and what they will present you as a fact, is, in essence, a badly distorted reality shaped by the catastrophic influence of their peer pressure.

Even if I had no opinion at all about a subject, I'd take an entrepreneurs opinion over anyone else's in a heart bit.

That way, the odds of forming a better image are greatly in favor of me.

As an entrepreneur I don't consider myself to be smarter than other people, I just have studied a lot, and I most often than not, have a more spherical and robust overview of the things.

Give entrepreneurs a break and listen to them. Although their opinion might sound a bit extreme sometimes, they have a good chance to be well supported and fact based. If you listen carefully and try to be open to it, you may be able to earn and learn quite a few things.

Commandment #8: Entrepreneurs hate to do unproductive things

When was the last time you played with your PlayStation?

I haven't touched mine for over 3 years now. Yes I know, even at 32, I was too old for this shit. A sad but true story.

As I've said before, productivity and formation of productive habits are one of the most important factors/predictors of success. Trying to squeeze every productive second out of the 24-hour clock is of paramount importance if you want to succeed.

So, every time my girlfriend asks me to do an unproductive thing like playing backgammon, watch a romantic movie, or hanging out with average people, somewhere in the world, a kitten loses one of its seven lives.

The more you raise your hourly rate, the harder will be to spend it on trivial things. Time is money ain't just a cliché phrase. It's 100 true.

All aspiring entrepreneurs, want to spend their time productively, even when they don't work. This could be reading a beautiful non-fiction book, having a nice chat (based on facts and an agenda), having a creative hobby or in general everything that will help them improve their selves even a little bit and help them achieve their goals sooner.

All other activities should be forbidden. And you shouldn't push them to do any of them as well. They need all the will power and energy they can harvest to achieve greatness. Don't make them waste their precious time on vain things that will hold them back.

Commandment #9: They get bored easily

Actually, this goes hand in hand with commandment #8. Give an entrepreneur productive tasks and they can go on for hours, days or years. As soon as they feel that this activity isn't very helpful in some way, they will get bored with it in a heart bit.

To achieve great things, an entrepreneur, has to live on the edge, he needs to be fast, decisive, agile, smart and resourceful. Things in business take place in fast pacing. Competition is ruthless, and so we need to be as well if we want to survive and thrive.

Likewise, an entrepreneur would become quickly bored from low quality chatting about other people (gossiping) and conversations that don't have a specific, useful outcome to be expected.

Boring, mundane and non-creative stuff are no good for an entrepreneur. So if you want to date one, always try to challenge their mind, with new and useful pieces of information, mind challenges like deep philosophical questions, business ideas, etc.

Don't worry if you don't have the profound wisdom. Sometimes a simple, honest question like: "Hey babe, how's the business going? Did it have any growth since the last time we talked about it?", will take you a long way.

Can you feel the difference between that question and the usual one about what color you should dye your hair?

Commandment #10: You need to continuously push them to greatness

If I had to pick one as the most important, that would be it. Primarily because to achieve number 10, you need to embrace all the previous ones, at least to some level.

The most important quality a girlfriend, can have, is to always try to push an entrepreneur to success. This "push" can take many forms, like:

Remove everyday resistance

Don't create negative feelings

Reduce drama as much as possible

Keep pushing him/her towards their goal

Hold them accountable

Recharge them with energy when their's has depleted

Respect their dreams and ambitions

Have total respect for their time

I can personally guarantee to you that if you do all of this stuff, then any entrepreneur would be more than willing to have you on their side proudly. They would be more than happy to make you part of their journey to success.

I can tell you for sure that, this journey won't be easy, but if you stick together, in the end, you'll be able to amass a lot more.

You'll become a richer person both in physical and spiritual goods. You'll learn a lot, you'll significantly expand your horizons, you'll eventually become the better version of you, and you'll be able to taste a life of greatness and abundance.